The Powers That Be Have Looted the Economy and Destroyed the Middle Class

From 2000 to 2014 the share of adults living in middle-income households fell in 203 of the 229 U.S. metropolitan areas examined in a new Pew Research Center analysis of government data. The decrease in the middle-class share was often substantial, measuring 6 percentage points or more in 53 metropolitan areas.

The other commonality isn’t just the shrinking of the middle class, but a movement both up and down the ladder. There’s a polarization. There are more in the upper tier and more in the lower, and fewer in the middle.

You got that right. And in coming months we’re going to see the Democratic Party demonstrate that this same criminal class has usurped and subverted American democracy also. The descent of this country since 11/22/63 is dire and on 9/11/01 it dropped right off the cliff. Thinking people all over the world are snickering at Americans for being so gullible and so spineless. Will America ever be America again?

cstahnke

No. We will either decline into neo feudalism or create a dramatically different kind of society after a good deal of chaos and violence.

jadan

One candidate has emerged who directly addresses this problem and promotes a radical departure from business as usual. Sanders knows that the failure is systemic and he proposes to move the system away from corporate capitalism towards democratic socialism. The elite who have confiscated the wealth of this country preach loudly about free markets, free trade, less government regulation, and the privatization of government functions. With this propaganda they have stolen the people’s government and left the majority debt slaves, share croppers, and homeless. When the system comes apart in dramatic fashion, Sanders will initiate New Deal 2.0. America can never be “great again” in the same way. Either the people embrace the power of their government and it becomes more democratic, or their government will destroy democratic potential altogether and we will become a desperate fascist enterprise.

HighinCascadia

I put zero faith in Sanders and yet… he’s not a braindead republican so he has that in his favor. And he’s not Hillary, an even bigger plus. Which leaves The Donald, and I’d rather him than today’s version of Dickens’s Josiah Bounderby character. So yeah, not the most ringing of endorsements but….

Sanders be da man.

jadan

He’s more of a man than meets the eye, IMHO.

cstahnke

I don’t know. I favor Sanders but i think he may be too late. Our political economy is systemically corrupt and the federal government is beyond fixing. Even if Sanders is elected how will he reform a government dominated by routine corruption that resulted from the strangulation of the civil service system through the contracting system and the revolving door. And that is not mention the absurd bureaucratic culture within most agencies and departments that as an ex govt contractor I knew so well. Most of the incentives in the system are perverse. It would take an American version of Putin to set thing right and Trump would not be that man and I’m not sure Sanders would be either.

ICFubar

Trump is partially correct in his idea of negotiating a write down of govt, debt but hasn’t fleshed out the idea enough to see where debt write down is most needed which is at the consumers level. Helicopter money issued to the consumer to write down debt does two things. First this money must be mandated used to write down consumer debt (others without debt can save, spend or invest this money) which in turn would make bank balance sheets healthier as non performing debts would see relief and the economy would begin to pick up. As debt is paid down this “extra” money pushed into the economy would disappear back from whence it came, the ether, excepting the interest. Conversely the bankers can just let the whole ball of wax continue as it is until societal breakdown results in unrest and violent reaction. Too much debt requires a debt jubilee as the only way out besides complete collapse.

diogenes

Two thirds of Americans (67%) possess 2% of the national wealth. The “powers that be” have been looting the “middle class” because most of us have nothing left to loot. Welcome to fascist feudal America, serfs.

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